Phoenix working dog rescue damaged in powerful monsoon storm

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — Tarps were torn to shreds, cooling systems were damaged and fences toppled in a dog rescue near Interstate 10 and 40th Street during Sunday night’s storm.

“Everything was flying everywhere,” said Alicia Via, who is part of the Working Dogs Rescue foundation. “These kennels here had tarps on the outside so what they did was act like a parachute against the wind and literally we had to rush and get the dogs out and get them to safety because the kennels were going with the wind.”

Via was to the rescue when the storm hit and quickly got the dogs to a safer area. “They were barking, and some of them were scared; they were going under their beds, but these are the ones we picked up and put them here, and we had people sitting with them,” Via said.

The next day, they saw the damage better and started to clean up. “He lifted all the roofing off all the kennels and ripped off the corrugated plastic roofing that was anchored to the kennels and ripped off the tarps that were under the kennels,” said Cherlynn Berry, founder of 2 Share Foundation, who works in close collaboration. with Working Dogs Rescue. “The foggers wrapped themselves into the fans and so it stopped the fans from working because the blades bent.”

The rescue also lost most of its cooling systems in the storms, which are placed in all the other kennels to keep the dogs cool. “They’re little arctic air conditioners and they’re chargeable and all the other pens have one in the back to blow cold air,” Via explained. “What happened is when they bent, they came loose, they fell in the water.”

Now the volunteers are trying to keep the dogs cool while trying to find money to replace coolers and the misting system. “It’s pretty bad because it’s very difficult to cool them down and dogs are very sensitive to heat, so we’re trying to do this as quickly as possible to get them in the shade and cool them down,” said Berry said. “They are desperately trying to bring shade and coolness to these dogs before they start having heat stroke dogs. They poured ice in all their buckets of water and whatever they can do temporarily because the whole place needs a lot of work.

Volunteers also work rotating shifts monitoring the dogs to ensure they are not overheated. Working Dogs Rescue needs shade tarps, fans, and various other items, as well as monetary donations. They are currently at capacity, with 57 dogs awaiting adoption. The rescue created a GoFundMe page to help repair the damage and replace the cooling systems.